Friday, January 01, 2010

Our Spiritual Leaders

The titular head of the Anglican Civil War has called for people to respond to geographically remote problems "just as we do when our immediate family is in need or trouble". Presumably this will result in any remaining Anglicans hopping onto aeroplanes in order to bring aid and comfort to needy strangers, which will certainly do wonders for the environment. Change can be effected, the Archbishop said, by keeping up pressure on our governments. "We may be amazed by the difference we can make"; the first person plural here being used in the Pious Imperative mood, which translates it seamlessly into the second person without causing undue offence.

Meanwhile the sixteenth Daddy Goodspeak, who reinstated the Tridentine Mass and is an assiduous supporter of the canonisation of Pope Pius XII, has used his New Year message in the manner one would expect, by calling for an end to discrimination. His sense of humour was further in evidence, after a year of memorable revelations about the Catholic church's concern for the welfare of children, when he conjured up images of potential faith school fodder at the mercy of other people. He also appealed to armed groups everywhere to "stop, reflect and abandon the way of violence", which will doubtless have the usual momentous effect.